Finally lyrical proficiency and lush storytelling is prying its head back to the music scene. Finally! Away with the mumbo-jumbo mumble rap. Can we please leave Gucci Gang and all his Lil cousins in 2017?

Enter CyHi The Prynce and his long-awaited debut solo album. Yaasss!

Despite the steady writing credits and feature appearances, G.O.O.D. Music never provided a bona fide platform for CyHi the solo artist,and he left the label.

The album feels like a hustler’s bible, raving between the religion of the church and the dope-infested streets of Atlanta. CyHi the Prynce brings Jesus to the trap and spits a testimony full of raw human contradiction. That sinners too can be sanctified.

Honestly it has a distant J. Cole ‘deep’ vibe. Specifically 2014 Forest Hills Drive, debatably one of the greatest rap albums of all time. 4 Your Eyez Only was..well..lackluster. The hardest song on the album, Neighbors, was the shortest. Go figure..but I digress

Though the 15 numbered tracklist boasts many stellar features (ScHoolboy Q, Estelle, Jagged Edge), it is no surprise that his G.O.O.D. Music label affiliates (Pusha T, founder Kanye West, Travis Scott and 2 Chainz) make the biggest splash, considering the years of established chemistry and rapport on and off the mic.

My notable favorites;

Nu Africa – This is one for the woke people, shedding the spotlight back on the Black Lives Movement. CyHi imagines what could happen if African-Americans actually uprooted themselves from the U.S. and moved to Africa. The possibilities he lists are somewhat fanciful, but they make the song provocative. Plus Kenya gets a shoutout? works for me. Imagine if all the rappers were/To get with all the athletes or activists and actors for//So we can build a neighborhood out in Zambia/Tell Khaled to build another one in Tanzania/What if Jay and Bey went and bought some land in Egypt?/And Puffy put a stripper club off the sands of Kenya?

No Dope On Sundays – sounds like Sundays with the drums, piano, organs and choirs in the background. Alluding to the gospel that even the drug dealers have Sunday off (because they move enough cake during the week..duh). And Pusha T’s verse goes hard. ‘When I realized what that did to your nose / I couldn’t justify what I did to my bro’